Monday, 7 January 2013

2012 had been a very busy year for Laibach and spanned not only touring and recording but also writing a soundtrack, exhibiting and speaking in public. In between they responded to a series of questions to help further cloud the intentions behind the band's ever-elusive modus operandi and spread more panic and confusion...

Intravenous Magazine: The association of self-stylised Nazi sci-fi B-movie Iron Sky with Laibach seems likely and natural. Yet, did the context of a film soundtrack allow you a freedom to step a bit out of character, play with musical styles new to the band?

Laibach:
Actually no, we found ourselves quite limited working on this
soundtrack. Originally we wanted to be experimental and playful with
music and styles, but it didn’t really fit. There are Wagnerian and
Nazi signifiers all over the film, dominated by the American,
Hollywood-esque narration, which dictated a very specific language
and approach we simply had to follow. Not much freedom there. Quite
rightfully so - after all, this film is discussing the Impossibility of
Freedom in the modern age.

IVM: The soundtrack is practically littered with 'Sieg Heil' and 'Mein
Fuhrer' samples lifted off the film and integrated into the music. The 'Nazi Kunst' in Laibach's legacy is taken to an outmost camp extreme. Did you revel on the opportunity to almost parody some common perceptions of the band?

L:
On the contrary, the logic of the soundtrack album demanded that we edit the score but we still had to follow the narrative of the film
and introduce separate scenes with the recognisable film dialogues.
Since most of the scenes in this film start and end with ‘Sieg’
and ‘Heil’, or even with ‘Sieg Heil!’ we simply could not
avoid using these greetings occasionally, to create the dramatic
suspense. We surely did not do it for our own fun.

IVM: How
did the collaboration with Tate Modern come about?

L:
We were invited to do the show by the Tate curators Catherine Wood
and Kathy Noble after they had attended our LaibachKunstderFuge show in
Bush Hall, London, and the Laibach Revisited shows in Roundhouse and Trbovlje,
as well as our exhibitions in Maribor and Trbovlje, including the
Laibach Symposium events in Trbovlje and Kum in 2010.

IVM: How
was the concert experience there for you and the rest of the group?

L:
It
was a bit unusual for Laibach, we all felt very modern.

IVM: How
did you select the songs you played on that concert, and on 'Revisited'? Do you build some
narrative or simply choose songs you haven't played in a long time and feel a
desire to play again?

L:
Firstly,
we were asked by Tate to present something special so we decided
to partly reconstruct the Music Biennial Zagreb/Occupied Europe Tour
show from 1983 and open the Tate concert with that. Secondly, the
Tate people really wanted us to do a kind of historical overview of
the essence of Laibach’s music and since we are releasing several
records discussing Laibach’s past work, we created the program
you could hear in Turbine Hall. Of course, there were also a few songs off Iron Sky and some that do not belong anywhere in
particular.

IVM: How did you 'recruit' the past members of Laibach like Srečko Bajda who played in the first part of the concert?

L: It was a pleasure to work with Srečko in Tate again - he was the first lead singer of the group and he was the front person at the aforementioned Zagreb Music Biennale show in ‘83. Although Srečko left Laibach in ‘83, we occasionally worked together on diverse
projects, like for instance Baptism. He also did the original Laibach
mix of B-Machina and you can find his touch in many other songs
Laibach did.

We
were also very pleased that Dan Landin/Stan Bingo, from Last Few
Days, was able to join us on clarinet for the Tate Modern
performance. Dan Landin is very much co-responsible for the ‘83
Laibach/LFD Occupied Europe Tour and he has occasionally performed
with Laibach on stage, on that tour as well as at the Biennial
concert in Zagreb.

IVM:
The choice to have Mina sing 'Across The Universe' seems
irresistible...but for example how did you decide on the one song
from Kapital? The text? The music?

L:
It
was about time to play a song from Kapital - we hadn’t for a long
time, and it is such an interesting album. Quite a few songs from
Kapital are very difficult to present live, but we decided to do at
least one for a start. It is now exactly 20 years since the Kapital
album was released.

IVM: With
the 'Laibach Revisited' tour and now the current one you have
reworked many songs from your early repertoire. How did you work on
the reworking? What part of it is experimentation in the studio or
rehearsal space and what part is an outcome of discussion?

L:
Obviously
there was some basic discussion going on but eventually someone had to
do the work in the studio as well. In principle the whole process was
a collective work, but we gave more space in these reinterpretations
to the young guns in Laibach, so they could get acquainted with the historic material.

IVM: Since
Mina Spiler joined there is much more female singing in
Laibach, including in the new versions of old songs. Did you consciously decide
to change this balance of Laibach's masculine music and aesthetics, or was it a natural outcome of Mina's
contribution?

L: Laibach always had a strong feminine side, which is maybe
yet to be unveiled. But although we collaborated with many women
through our entire career (with some on stage and many more off
stage) we never used them to camouflage or balance our masculinity
with their femininity. On
the contrary - most of Laibachian female side was strictly produced
by our collective testosterone, and even femme fatale ladies like
Mina were only able to work with Laibach because they corresponded
with it in a manly manner and not like a woman.

IVM: The
cover versions compilation - I always felt that the reason your cover
versions are so effective is not just the change of context of a song
and of course the bombastic compositions but also because I think you
love those songs and have respect for pop and rock. Do you agree?

L:
If
we’d agree on this we’d have to agree on many other things we
don’t want to. This would be the end of Laibach, who can only exist
through disagreement. Do you agree?

IVM: Alexei
Monroe often claims that the cover versions led English critics
and listeners, perhaps because of the English tradition of absurd
humour, to consider Laibach a novelty/parody act. Now, with the recent explosion of Laibach and IRWIN activity in London it looks like
Laibach and NSK are taken much more seriously - do you think it is
because it took time to fully understand Laibach Kunst, or maybe
because the economical instability of the west makes Laibach's ideas
more popular? Do you think Laibach is a band that thrives in times
of crisis?

L:
One
of the reasons why British Empire was so expansive and lasted for so
long is because they didn’t take any other nation seriously, anyone
who did not speak native English. When the Empire finally shrank, the British only survived because they wouldn’t take the shrinking
situation seriously. Even more - they wouldn’t take themselves
seriously. So how could we expect they would suddenly take Laibach
seriously? Just because we are telling them the truth?

IVM: When
will Wolkswagner be released and are any DVD releases of the tours
since Volk planned?

L:
Unfortunately
Volkswagner will not be released, due to high recording expenses, and
we also did not have in mind any DVD releases of the tours at this
point. Everything is on YouTube already anyway, so why bother?

IVM: What
direction would you like to see the activity of post-congress NSK
citizens take?

L:
If
the citizens of NSK want to have a good State, they should organize
themselves and make it functional. We did our part of work regarding
the creation of the State and we don’t want to interfere in its
substance more than necessary.

IVM: Do
you accept this democratisation of NSK?

L:
As
long as it is utopian - yes.

IVM: What
is your favourite-ever Laibach song, or at least your favourite at
this moment?

L:
Unfortunately
we cannot reply you on this question because the word ‘favourite’
does not exist in Laibachian vocabulary.